The use of stents in bodily lumen is well known. A stent is typically delivered in an unexpanded state to a desired location in a bodily lumen via a stent delivery device such as a catheter. Once the stent is at the desired bodily location, it is either expanded with a balloon or other suitable device or allowed to expand by, for example, withdrawing a restraining sheath. Typically, the stent is delivered bare to the body. During the past several years, however, there has been a great deal of interest in drug-coated stents. Specifically, a number of drug-coated stents have been developed which allow for time-release of a drug. These stents are believed to offer the possibility of reduced restenosis. The presence of drug-coatings on stents, however, presents new challenges in the area of stent design. Conventional bare stent designs may prove difficult to coat uniformly because of the proximity of different structural features.
There is a need for flexible stents that are designed to be coated with drugs.
All U.S. patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72.